Oleanna, Tap Gallery

"Men have a lot to learn from women." So said writer-director David Mamet in his essay titled, simply, Women. Watching his play, Oleanna, it is difficult to discern his desire to be educated.

Oleanna caused an outcry and inspired passionate debate between the sexes when it premiered at Harvard University in 1992. As Mamet noted: "It was like doing The Diary of Anne Frank at Dachau."

Mamet's volatile whirlpool of perceived behaviour and combustible reaction between a university professor, John, and a young female student, Carol, divided audiences and critics throughout Oleanna's many stagings in the 1990s.

The play consists of three acts, set in John's (James Hagen) office. The first features Carol (Melanie Holt) as a vulnerable, disheartened student who cannot accept that she is failing her grades. She is almost pain-stricken in her desperation to pass but entirely bewildered by John's pompous, bombastic proclamations about the education system he draws his position of power from.

Between calls from his increasingly agitated wife about a house purchase, John moves from incomprehension at Carol's plight to a compassionate, rather zealous, desire to help.

Why this professor, on the verge of a hoped-for tenure, helps her is not clear. We deduce, perhaps, that he has a heart.

At one point, Carol breaks down and John places a consoling, paternalistic arm around her. From the audience, his actions look pretty creepy but we do not see Carol's reaction.

After interval Carol returns a stronger, more confident woman. With the support of a nameless, faceless "group", she has brought sexual harassment charges against John. Later, after another emotional confrontation, she accuses him of rape. Now it is John's turn to be bewildered. He cannot accept that Carol's actions will cost him his job, his house and possibly his family. The play descends into a rage-filled and, ultimately, violent outcome triggered by Carol's offer to drop her complaint if he will alter the curriculum.

It is a shocking outcome and we are left with both characters reeling in their own horror.

Director Robyn McLean's production leaves this maelstrom of political correctness and gender warfare open to interpretation. Both performances are strong and capable, although Holt seems to shy away from the action a little. In the second act, however, she blooms to grasp the text and make sense of Mamet's slightly flawed play.